The Symbolic Mind: Apes, symbols, and the evolution of language

Abstract

Ape language research provides an opportunity to study empirically the relationship between language and thought, a question notoriously difficult to address. The conclusions reached till also inform theories of language evolution. The research in this dissertation was conducted with language-trained bonobos, Pan paniscus, at the Great Ape Trust of Iowa, utilizing a computerized matching method. The data provide evidence that the possession of symbols facilitate categorization of natural categories, a foundation for many cognitive operations. However, the data does not support the theories suggestions a primacy of gestural or other visual communication in the evolution of language. Rather, a multimodal origin of language is more likely. To explain how the ape subjects in this study came to acquire symbolic competencies, social niche construction theory is utilized.

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